This is one in a series of articles about farmers in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed who have implemented Best Management Practices (BMPs) to improve water quality and efficiency on their farm. As a result of these and other success stories, we're halfway to achieving the nutrient reductions needed to restore the Chesapeake Bay and its waters. View the rest of the series here.

Tim and Susie Brown own Hills Farm, 630 acres adjoining the Chesapeake
Bay on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It's a historic farm dating back to 1747.

"I'm a big supporter of the
Farm Bill," Tim Brown says of the federal legislation that has provided much of
the funding for CREP and other farm conservation programs helping farmers
protect soil and water resources. "I wish more people would take advantage of
the conservation programs."

"We have wildlife buffers
around all our crop fields; they filter nutrients out of runoff water, which
helps clean up the Bay," he says. "The buffers were installed as part of the
CREP program. They do more than filter runoff; they also provide habitat for
wildlife."

Hills Farm has 100 acres of
tillable land, but most of the farm is woodland and marsh. Of the 100 acres of
tillable land, about half is planted in annual crops; the rest is either in
CREP or in some sort of wildlife habitat, including 13 acres of
impoundments.

Brown has a passion for ducks
and wading birds and partnered with Ducks Unlimited to construct several
holding ponds that can be planted with annual crops or allowed to grow natural
plant foods for ducks, then flooded during the migration season. This provides
much needed food for waterfowl migrating along the Eastern Shore, a major East
Coast flyway.

"I'm proud that we use conservation practices that not only
protect the Bay but also the wildlife that use the Bay and the Eastern Shore."

—Bobby Whitescarver

Whitescarver lives in Swoope, Va. For more information, visit hiswebsite.

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